Renting in Hollywood? Here's What You Need to Know Before You Sign

Hollywood Rental Market Overview

Hollywood, SC is an unusually thin rental market, consistent with its rural-to-suburban character on the western edge of the Charleston metro: as of September 2026, no apartment community with a Hollywood address operates an independent website publishing rent pricing. National listing aggregators (Zillow, Rent.com, ApartmentFinder) return apartment communities with real floor-plan pricing -- The Heyward, Bluewater at Bolton's Landing, Satori West Ashley, Aventon Pearl, and others -- but every one of them sits in Charleston or Johns Island, not inside Hollywood's 29449 ZIP code. Narrowing those same searches to listings actually addressed in Hollywood surfaces only two: a single-family home at 5250 Cherry Hill Rd and a rental unit inside the Stono Ferry golf community on Stono Links Drive. Both addresses were checked against the Census Bureau's geocoder and confirmed inside Hollywood town limits -- but neither is managed by an operator with its own leasing website disclosing a price, so this guide does not repeat the aggregator-only figures attached to either listing.

Common Lease Terms in Hollywood

None of the rental listings identified for Hollywood comes from a community with its own independent leasing website, so typical lease length, deposit amount, and application fee can't be stated with a source behind them the way this guide can for a market-rate apartment city.

• The two real Hollywood-addressed rental listings found for this guide are an individually owned single-family home and one unit inside a golf community, not units at a managed multi-family apartment complex
• Stono Ferry's own website describes the community as selling homes, townhomes, and lots -- a real-estate sales operation, not an apartment landlord -- so a rental tied to its address reflects an individual owner's terms, not a community-wide lease program

Local Tenant Protections

South Carolina law provides the baseline for tenant rights, but Hollywood may have additional local ordinances that affect your lease.

• South Carolina law preempts local rent control statewide (S.C. Code §27-39-60) -- no South Carolina city or county, including Hollywood, may enact an ordinance regulating the rent charged on privately owned residential property
• The Town of Hollywood maintains a Code of Ordinances hosted on Municode (last updated March 2023), but the town's own website blocks automated access, so this guide could not directly confirm its contents; no rental-registration or landlord-tenant-specific ordinance for Hollywood is referenced in any accessible source checked for this guide
• No local landlord-tenant ordinance beyond South Carolina's statewide Residential Landlord and Tenant Act has been identified for Hollywood

For full South Carolina statewide tenant rights, see our South Carolina tenant rights guide.

Mandatory Fees at Hollywood Rentals

No fee disclosure could be verified for any Hollywood rental, because neither property identified for this guide is listed on an independent website disclosing application fees, pet fees, or other recurring charges.

• 5250 Cherry Hill Rd, an individually listed single-family home confirmed inside Hollywood town limits, has no published fee schedule found for this guide
• The Stono Links Drive listing sits inside the Stono Ferry golf community, also confirmed inside Hollywood town limits -- but Stono Ferry's own site markets homes, townhomes, and lots for sale, not apartment rentals, so there is no landlord fee schedule to check

A property with no published fee schedule and no dedicated leasing website isn't a red flag by itself in a market this thin -- but it does mean getting every fee in writing directly from whoever manages the specific property is the only way to know the real cost before signing.

Hollywood: From Truck Farming to a Charleston-Area Bedroom Community

Hollywood began in the 1880s when Charles W. Geraty established farming operations on land near Yonges Island, and the settlement that grew up around his store and bank -- built "in a natural grove of holly trees," per the South Carolina Encyclopedia -- took its name from that grove. The town's early economy ran on truck farming: potatoes, tomatoes, and cabbage shipped out by rail through a depot on the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, supported by two warehouses and an ice facility, through the 1960s. Competition from Florida growers eroded that agricultural base by the mid-20th century, and Hollywood -- incorporated in 1949 with roughly 500 residents -- diversified into a suburban bedroom community for workers commuting into Charleston and North Charleston, a transition the Encyclopedia traces through the back half of the 20th century.

That growth has continued: Census figures show Hollywood's population rising from 4,714 in 2010 to 5,339 in 2020, an increase of about 13.3%. The town today totals 24.92 square miles (23.57 sq mi land, 1.35 sq mi water) per current Census Bureau geography, sits within the Charleston-North Charleston Urbanized Area, and is bordered by Ravenel to the north and Meggett to the south, roughly 21 miles from downtown Charleston. (A turn-of-the-millennium description in the South Carolina Encyclopedia put the town's limits at 33 square miles stretched 16 miles along S.C. Highway 162 -- a notably larger figure than the current Census total, most likely reflecting a boundary that has since been redrawn rather than a data error on either side; this guide reports both figures with their respective sources rather than picking one.) Hollywood is governed by an elected mayor-council government; Chardale Murray serves as mayor.

Common Issues Renters Face in Hollywood

These are the most frequent considerations this guide's research turned up for renters in Hollywood:

• No apartment community in Hollywood publishes independent pricing, so comparing a "Hollywood rent" to a neighboring Charleston-metro city's published figures isn't possible from public sources alone -- confirming a real number means contacting whoever manages the specific property
• Hollywood's rental inventory is scattered individually owned homes rather than managed apartment complexes, a different structure than the floor-plan-pricing communities found just a few miles away in Charleston or Summerville
• A "Stono Ferry" address on a listing site reflects an individual owner renting out a home inside a for-sale golf community, not a unit in a community-wide lease program with its own office
• Hollywood's own Code of Ordinances is hosted on Municode, but the town's website blocks automated access, so confirming any local requirement (business license, short-term rental rule, or otherwise) means checking directly with Town Hall rather than assuming none exists

Negotiating Your Lease in Hollywood

South Carolina is landlord-favorable with minimal statutory protections, and no South Carolina city, including Hollywood, can adopt rent control by law. Hollywood's rental market has essentially no organized multi-family competition, so negotiating leverage is set property-by-property rather than by a community's published rate card.

• Confirming who actually manages a specific listed property -- an individual owner versus a property-management company -- is a reasonable first step, since no Hollywood rental identified for this guide runs through a community leasing office
• Requesting a written, itemized list of every fee before applying matters especially here, since neither property identified for this guide publishes one
• Confirming a specific address sits inside Hollywood town limits and not unincorporated Charleston County -- routine practice across this guide's South Carolina coverage -- is worth doing directly, even though both Hollywood-addressed listings researched for this guide checked out

A market this thin doesn't have a published rate to negotiate against -- treat every quoted rent and every fee as a starting point to confirm in writing, not a fixed number set by a wider market.